On Tue, 12 Aug 2003. someone wrote: > > I question the validity of the premise that UW students don't > own cars. Last year, Tom Powell (then District 5 Alder), presented a > resolution to the PBMVC to extend the maximum time a car can be > parked on a public street from 48 hours to 96 hours.
But the premise was not that ALL (or even most) people living in and around campus don't own cars, but rather that there is significant number of people in living in and near campus who do not presently rely on cars because of they can get by without one and avoid the cost, hassle, etc., of car ownership (or lease). Car sharing would make it easier for them to make use of the luxury of driving a car outside, and even within, the area, without having to deal with parking, storage, theft, vandalism, etc.. BTW, could anyone with city census knowledge address the question of the approx. number of driving age people of District 5 who don't own or lease a car?. My guess would be that number exceeds 10,000 people. That's a pretty large number in my book, and a large number of additional motor vehicle drivers on city roads and highways. On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, someone else wrote: > Most of the time when folks talk about automobiles > they focus only on the emissions and gas used to drive > the vehicle as the main culprit; however, they forget > the amount of resources needed (and pollution created) > by just building an automobile. Even if each person > participating in the Car Share was driving the same > amount as they did before there would be a reduction > in pollution and used resources since there would be > only one car instead of multiple autos. Not if they didn't all own cars before joining the car share. Then there would be an additional number of cars manufactured and delivered (the one's purchased by CommunityCar.com. > Many of the college students and other folks who may > participate in this probably don't own brand new fuel > efficient autos with cleaner exhaust. They probably > are running older cars that tend to burn oil, not as > efficient exhaust system, and may have poor fuel > efficiency. It would seem to be a step in the right > direction to get this auto's off the roads. Who's to say they wouldn't sell the beaters to someone else who drives even more than they do? > There are other aspects that are useful for Car > Sharing. Studies show that each participant drives > less when in a Car Share than if they each had their > own vehicle (because, I assume, it is a tad bit more > difficult to just go out and drive). I can accept that, provided they owned and used a car before signing on the dotted line for use of a shared motor vehicle. However, what if they didn't own (or lease) a vehicle before the Car Sharing opportunity came along, and therefore seldom drove at all? Their driving of the shared car would represent totally new driving mileage in the city (unless someone else was picking them up and carting them around all the time)? On Wed., Aug. 13, someone else said: >Most people on this list are probably good candidates for car-sharing - we have >already figured out how to get around without a car. But everyone occasionally > needs help carrying a large item, dropping off household items, picking up > someone at the airport, accessing areas of the city/county that are tough to > get to in the rain/at night/when you are really pressed for time, taking > yourself or the kids to the doctor, etc. There are rent a car places in this city for some of that kind of thing, and cab services as well. Most people who only need a motor vehicle infrequently can also rely on friends, families, neighbors and other acquaintances for help. That's the kind of thing that community life should be able to provide. Having a Car Sharing business locate in Madison will likely only contribute to an increasing number of motor vehicle operation miles being driven in Madison, and in Dane County -- the number of which has already gotten way out of control. It is seriously degrading the quality of living in and around Madison. Too much car driving in and around Madison has already screwed up walking and bicycling safety in and outside the community. It has adversely affected the health of people living throughout the auto driving laden city of Madison; and now even threatens the safety of breathing the air out in the formerly rural areas and small towns surrounding Madison, because of the overall unsustainable amount of motor vehicle driving done almost daily throughout Dane County and south central Wisconsin, mostly by automobile commuters to Madison. The fairness of and total amount of taxes in Madison versus Dane County has also be disrupted; peace and quiet (in both Madison and Dane County)has been almost entirely lost -- due primarily to the ever increasing number of motor vehicle miles driven. Many consider the amount of environmental degradation from the ever widening and making other "improvements" to the area's road system, just to allow it to accommodate even larger numbers of motor vehicles driven daily, a huge tragedy already; yet it continues. The amount of land acreage devoted to accommodating people driving of cars and parking them in Madison and elsewhere is already way out of proportion to what it should be to maintain a sustainable community and environment. Accommodating the desires for even more car driving in Madison, as I believe car sharing businesses would likely do, will also contribute more greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, which will result in, theoretically at least, an even faster rate of local (and global) climate warming, placing our descendents at increasing risk of the potentially devastating human consequences, a scenario that just about every scientists looking seriously into the issue of today concludes will ultimately be calamitous, almost beyond human comprehension, if steps are not taken, real soon, to drastically reduce greenhouse gases from all sources on the planet, and hold them to the absolute minimum, indefinitely. >Geez.... this is an exciting opportunity. I can't believe people are trashing it! It's not exciting at all, in my opinion. In fact, car sharing promotion may very likely turn out to be counter productive, assuming what we really want for this community is a major reduction in motor vehicle operation. The scale required to accomplish significantly reduced motor vehicle driving in Madison, by people living in Madison and by residents of outlying areas who drive to regularly to Madison for work, play, study, shopping, etc., must be much, much larger than making car sharing available and hoping people will reduce their annual vehicle miles travelled to more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable levels, here in Madison and Dane County anyway. Mike ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! 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